[SOLD-OUT] Ashton Hills Estate Pinot Noir 2011

"The 2011 Estate is lighter in colour than our usual pinots. This is a reflection of the year and the inherent nature of the variety and is simply not a problem as it might be with darker-coloured varieties. (Consider our 1992 Pinot from another cool year and the wine which prompted me to coin the phrase "rusty water" style. It remains one of our most interesting and beguiling wines to date.)
On the palate of the 2011 there are flavours of strawberry, cherry, rhubarb and cola, combined with our usual vineyard " and oak " derived spice. Slightly higher acid and tannins are again due to the year and there's the usual silky texture that our vineyard produces. The balance of fruit, acid, wood and tannin suggests that the wine can be drunk now with food while the wine's structure suggests cellaring for a decade or more.
Hopefully I'll one day regret demoting our 2011 Reserve fruit to Estate."
Stephen George, Ashton Hills

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Made from grapes hand-sorted three times. Ashton Hills' top pinot noir from the vintage (no Reserve produced).

Despite or because of the season " it's a lovely wine. Modest alcohol is a key feature. So too is complexity. Deli meats, fresh red cherries, earth and woody spice and fennel. It's a juicy, mouth-watering pinot noir with fine sinews of spicy, meaty tannin. It will age, but it is beautiful to drink now.
Campbell Mattinson, Wine Front, 22nd August 2013.

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Country:

Australia

Region:

SA- Adelaide Hills

Variety:

Wine Red - Pinot noir

Size:

750mL